Democrat Party use anti-Catholic political advertisement

Ad shows photo-shopped image of a priest wearing an ‘Ignore the Poor’ pin

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, October 26, 2010, 9:04 AM

Updated Tuesday, October 26, 2010, 9:15 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

7 Comments

DFL anti-Catholic postcard

The Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party are hoping that that their anti-Catholic advertisement might gain them the vote of all those who have turned against the Church.

A postcard sent out to voters in Minnesota shows a photograph of a priest, wearing the traditional black shirt and dog collar, with a campaign pin photo-shopped in that reads ‘Ignore the Poor’. The postcard holds no other information on the front, no other message.

The National Catholic Observer points out the most worrying aspect of this ad besides its face value message. “This group must believe that there’s enough of an anti-Catholic vote that this would pay dividends. Could that be true?” said Matthew Archbold.

He also said “What this is about is the fact that the Church stands strong against abortion and gay marriage. And that makes some very angry.”

Whether these theories are true or not this anti-Catholic advertisement shows how low parties will go to get the vote.

Nster.com

E-mail

7 Comments

See all comments

Reilleyfam | Oct 28, 2010, 01:49 PM EDT

Sadly it's not JUST anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage positions that turn folks against the Church today. Many, including many long-time Catholics, are fed up with the molestations, the cover ups and the luxurious lifestyle that the leaders enjoy. The Church is not in touch with or concerned with the parishoners (like regular politicians). They do the work for their opponents with their own behavior & attitude.

Report abuse

GeorgeDillon | Oct 28, 2010, 11:58 AM EDT

These guys put the RAT in DemocRAT.

Report abuse

McBurgh428 | Oct 27, 2010, 02:10 PM EDT

This is a ridiculous and imperceptive leap of logic by Ms. Kelly and Mr. Archbold. One, no party is stupid enough to alienate the huge Catholic portion of the electorate in an in-your-face manner, no matter what you think of Democrats. (And from the language in this piece, the author makes no bones about hiding her right-wing bias.) Two, this ad has nothing to do with abortion or gay marriage -- apparently Mr. Archbold thinks priests are two-dimensional figures who can only ever be linked to those two issues. Three, absurdist images like this one exist to draw attention to what is actually being said in the real world inhabited by the rest of us, which is that the Church explicitly defends the poor. We see this and think, "This makes no sense based on the Church's position," then remember that the Church DOES tell us to help the poor, and ostensibly the next step is for us to think that the poor are best helped by voting Democrat. So this ad actually does the exact opposite of what the author wants to believe, but if all that text had to be included to explain this to the two people out there who don't get it, then it would be a pretty ugly ad.

Report abuse

Bushothehill | Oct 27, 2010, 12:45 PM EDT

Don't need anti-Catholic ads to further the democratic agenda---55%- percent of "catholics" voted for Obama!!!!!!

Report abuse

kevinhayes | Oct 27, 2010, 11:15 AM EDT

It's the DemocratIC Party, Antoine!

Report abuse

John G. Hogan | Oct 27, 2010, 09:55 AM EDT

dog collar.........could you be more disrespectful try Roman collar

Report abuse

Edinboron | Oct 26, 2010, 10:26 AM EDT

How about this for a headline "ANTOINETTE KELLY uses misleading headline an in attempt to smear the DNC". The party is question is the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party not the DNC.

Report abuse